First, we want to talk about this most amazing of systems. I want to share with you from a yogic point of view. The nervous system is composed of these tiny little filament fibers that take the messages from the brain to the muscles. The larger nerves that feed the organs. The Vagus, the largest nerve in our body, is the connector of heart and head. The Sciatic, which feeds the entire lower part of the body hip to the feet rules how we move into our lives, thus we call it the life nerve.

We have many nerve plexuses such as those around the navel and genitalia. The lips are another big nerve plexus. These are the ones that are congregation points or ganglia. The spine is the center of this amazing system. The central nervous system, we call the Sushmina; the Parasympathetic Nervous system is yogically named the pingla or receptive system–the one that asks you to relax, breath, receive. The Ida (yogic name) or Sympathetic system is the one we most use, which is the one that says go do, get, make it happen, go go go. This is of course the Readers Digest version of this vast and amazing system. I urge you to look it up and understand it more so you can have more reverence for it.

Most of our lives are so overpacked that our nervous systems are already on overload. We then add things which strangle the nervous system and take us out–out as in strike out. It is not a good place to be. It leads to deep anxiety, depression, over reaction, disgust and much more–all in the not wanted category.

This system is the carrier service in your body. When it is stressed, we:

1. have no patience, get aggravated, irritated or angry easily, feel emotional, and ready to have a nervous breakdown.

7. have cloudy, muddled, and forgetful thinking.
See if this fits your patterns. When you are in this state, you ruin your nervous system further by doing the following.
1. Taking Stimulants such as coffee/caffeine in all forms and sugar in large dosages to try and get your energy back.

2. Spending time by yourself but also spending it watching TV or movies (overstimulation); don’t want any more conflict or need from others in your life.

3. Eating junk food. Eating sugar begets more sugar craving and more eating badly–the sugar, salt, fried cycle. You may only have 2 of these but often they are the 3 muses.

4. Not exercising because you are too tired, cranky, fat…

5. Wanting to “kill” anyone around you who even looks odd, much less the ones that really make you angry or need something from you; over reacting to most of your life.

6. Hating yourself for how you are acting or blaming everyone else for the situation/state of your mind.

7. Skipping meditating because you are to exhausted and trying to catch up on sleep.

It is a downward spiral that just keeps going in a self-destructing spiral. Sleep won’t restore you when your nervous system is this challenged. What will? That is my next blog. This one’s purpose is to define what is and our patterns of self destruction of our nervous system. It may not be intentional but piling up the unhealthy habits on top of an already taxed nervous system guarantees a bad outcome.

I want good outcomes for you, so read the next blog on how to stop this self destructive cycle.